Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Taken from the original post by Inkobah over at Twinkinfo.com , an excellent site dedicated to all things twinking. I enjoyed this article so much, I decided to include it in its entirety right here at Cold's Gold Factory. Markco of JMTC and I have differing opinions regarding how to profit off of twinks. Check out both of our guest posts in addition to this article by Ink. Then you can decide for yourselves. Markco's Cataclysm Twinking post came first, then I posted my thoughts on Flipping Twink BoE Gear over at JMTC. Here's the excellent article by Inkobah from Twinkinfo.com:

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Over the last 5 years or so twinking in World of Warcraft has been a roller coaster. There have been all kinds of changes introduced by the various patches; some of which have been harmful to twinking and others that have been praised by twinks.

The roller coaster took a sharp drop with Patch 3.2 that added XP to Battlegrounds, allowing players to level their characters as they played in BGs. This move also required twinks to turn their Experience off in order to keep from leveling in Battlegrounds. But the big killer to twinks was that by turning off XP they could only play in Battlegrounds with other players that had turned off experience. This move by Blizzard severely gimped twinking, but it's been hobbling along for the past year in select Battlegroups (19s on Ruin, 29s on Reckoning, 39s on Nightfall, and 49s on Ruin for US servers).
The next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, is currently in Beta testing and is expected to be out "soon". One of the many new features Cataclysm will be introducing is cross-Battlegroup Battlegrounds. Players will be able to play with and against any other players of the same bracket from across their own region (US with US, EU with EU). There will be no more server or Battlegroup restrictions.
In this blog, I'll be addressing some of the positive impacts that Cataclysm will have on twinking. I'll also be addressing some of the potential negatives that Cataclysm may have on twinking in a future post. Sit back, read, comment, discuss, etc.

Cataclysm's Positive Impact on Twinking
There is little doubt that this will drastically change the way PvP happens within WoW, but what exactly will it mean for twinking? Cataclysm (Patch 4.0) can and will bring new life to twinking. First, 4.0 will provide BGs for dormant twinks. All those twinks that have been sitting on servers that have no XP-off BGs will finally be able to brush off the dust and get some action. Before this new feature, twinks had to transfer to other servers that allowed them to get into XP-off BGs and many twinks just never made the move due to the price ($25 per transfer). Once 4.0 goes live, however, they will be able to queue and get BGs for the first time in over a year.

Since the Battlegroup restrictions will be lifted with Cataclysm there will be new opponents, new teammates, and a unified twink community per bracket (finally!). Many twinks enjoy playing against and with the same people over and over, but it will be refreshing to have a surge of new faces on both sides. The pool of players will be so large (in comparison) that twinks will no longer play with the same noob for three (or more) BGs in a row!
The twink community will also be unified across all Battlegroups. With no restrictions by Battlegroups, twinks will be free to interact, play with/against, and get to know other twinks of the same bracket. New friendships, new enemies, new drama. This change will be reminiscent of when BGs were changed from server-wide to Battlegroup-wide (Patch 1.12), but on a larger scale. That move was arguably a boost to twinking for many of the same reasons that 4.0 will be an advancement.

The ease of getting into twinking will be so extreme (as compared to what it was before) that Patch 4.0 will also bring new people into the twink community. Never before was twinking as easy to get into as it will be once Cataclysm is released. There will be no transferring and sitting in queues for ridiculous amounts of time. The new faces will be welcome additions to a community that is arguably one of the best out there within WoW.
One of the big downfalls of any MMO (including WoW) is the continual pursuit to get better gear as new content is released with new expansions and patches. Many players have become disenchanted by this constant carrot on a stick, but still desire to play World of Warcraft. It's this disenchantment and desire that lead many to twinking. After the expansion is released, this will continue to happen to new players (and probably to more players as 85 will be like 80, 70, and 60 – go here, do this boss, get this loot, new content, rinse and repeat, etc.). Twinking is the only segment of WoW that allows players to max out their gear and just play without investing hours upon hours in the gear grind. Sure, new expansions and patches have and likely will release new gear and content for twinks, but this has and will be on much smaller scale than the max level grind. No one needs a second job to keep up with the Jones' with twinking and as more people realize that they'll look for ways to enjoy the game without the time sink. Twinking will be that alternative for many new people.

Cataclysm is still months away, but twinks should rejoice! Patch 4.0 will bring rebirth to the segment and community of WoW that we all love. In my next blog post I will be talking about the potential negatives that Cataclysm can cause to the twink community of World of Warcraft.
I've just scratched the surface on the positive additions Cataclysm will bring to twinking. What are some of the other positives? /Discuss
-Ink
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Well written, Ink! Be sure to go check out his site, if you are interested in twinking or catering to the twinking markets.